The Fixer Uppers **½ (Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mae Busch, Charles Middleton) – Classic Movie Review 12,396

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy star in the 1935 comedy short film The Fixer Uppers, as a jealous artist (Charles Middleton) challenges Ollie to a duel to the death at midnight.

Director Charles Rogers’s 1935 20-minute black and white comedy short film The Fixer Uppers is made by Hal Roach Studios and released by MGM, and stars Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. A jealous temperamental artist (Charles Middleton) challenges Ollie to a duel to the death at midnight and pledges to track him ‘to the end of the world’ if he does not show up.

Stan and Ollie play greetings card salesmen who agree to cheer up client Madame Gustav (Mae Busch) by making her temperamental artist husband (Charles Middleton) jealous, and he challenges Hardy to a duel to the death at midnight. The Fixer Uppers is a mostly funny reworking of their 1927 silent short film Slipping Wives, with Hardy firmly in the spotlight and Busch excellent.

The two best scenes are L&H trying to sell cards to Busch, and Mae using Stan to show Ollie how to kiss.

The team appeared in a total of 107 films between 1921 and 1951. They appeared in Slipping Wives before they teamed up.

It is the penultimate Laurel and Hardy short comedy made at Hal Roach Studios, followed by Thicker than Water (1935). The film is partly remade by The Three Stooges in 1940 as Boobs in Arms.

The cast are Stan Laurel as Stan, Oliver Hardy as Oliver, Mae Busch as Madame Pierre Gustav, Charles Middleton as Pierre Gustave, Arthur Housman as the drunk man, Noah Young as the bartender, Bobby Dunn, Dick Gilbert, Jack Hill, James C Morton, and Bob O’Conor.

The Fixer Uppers is directed by Charles Rogers, run s20 minutes, is made by Hal Roach Studios, is released by MGM, is written by Stan Laurel and Frank Tashlin, is shot in black and white by Art Lloyd, is scored by Leroy Shield (music) and Marvin Hatley (theme).

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,396

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